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Soren Johnson

Designer Notes 9: Bruce Shelley

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June 19, 2015 In this episode, Soren interviews veteran game designer Bruce Shelley, who is best known for his work on Railroad Tycoon, Civilization, and the Age of Empires series. He is currently working at Bonus XP on Servo, a new RTS. They discuss what the two Sids have in common, why they took disasters out of Railroad Tycoon, what game got shoved out the door to make way for Civilization, why Ensemble games always look so bright, and why he always does his research in the children's section of the library.

 

Games Discussed: Squad Leader, the MERP series, Titan, Civilization (Avalon Hill), 1830, Cosmic Encounter, Acquire, Wooden Ships & Iron Men, F-19 Stealth Fighter, Covert Action, Railroad Tycoon, Pirates!, Empire Deluxe, Civilization, Age of Empires series, Company of Heroes

 

https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/bruce-shelley

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I am that kid that learned history stuff from Age of Empires and Civilization. I impressed a history professor because I understood the importance of the 3 field system and the horse drawn plow.

 

Excellent episode!

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An amazing episode that I almost wish did not have to end, although I could listen to Bruce Shelley discuss strategy games, Ensemble Studios and the Age of... games for hours. I can only thank Bruce Shelley for his time and praise everyone who made this happen.
 
One of my most vivid memories has to be of reading the Age of Empires help section and just soaking up all the information possible on the background of the units, technologies and everything else in the game. Seriously the amount of stuff you could read about in the thing pictured below, for lack of a better term, blew my mind during my childhood and contributed to a massive love of and interest in history. Age of Empires and the Rise of Rome expansion was up there as one of my most played games and even to this day, though more for nostalgic reasons these days, is one of my all-time favourite games.
 

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I know a lot of people consider Age of Kings, with the Age of Conquerors expansion, the magnum opus of Ensemble Studios but you can count me as one of those that loved Age of Mythology the most and who would have given an arm or a leg to see more expansions or a sequel for it. From the mythological setting, the uniqueness of the different factions (carried over to AoE3) and the power & spectacle of the god powers through to the interesting campaign... everything was amazing. While Microsoft have new content and updates in the works for the Steam versions of AoE2:HD and AoM:EE it still does not feel the same without Ensemble Studios or a direct offshot at the helm, there's something to be said for the productional values and a certain polish that separates an Ensemble Studios game from the rest.

 

As a side note, for a lot of Age of... fans the only true victory condition is conquest and, to quote a Three Moves Ahead episode, "Wonder victories are BS". :P

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I like the insight about the games the designer had fun designing versus games the designer designed to be fun playing.

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I like the insight about the games the designer had fun designing versus games the designer designed to be fun playing.

This also came up in the Jake Solomon episode of Tone Control. He said Sid Meier would ask his designers "who's having fun?" and that is just so succinct and devastating to me, I love it.

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This also came up in the Jake Solomon episode of Tone Control. He said Sid Meier would ask his designers "who's having fun?" and that is just so succinct and devastating to me, I love it.

 

 

Both of these episodes make me really want a massive Sid Meier episode of either 'cast.

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